Crater Lake National Park
Sunday | 17 August 2008 | Crater Lake National Park:
Look where we are now! You all know how much DT and I enjoy our national
parks... and Crater Lake isn't even two hours from La Pine... we have a few more
days to play, so here we are!
We had an uneventful drive to the park and stopped at one of the first pull-outs
for our lunch break. We had a view north to a fairly large forest fire. The air
was smoky and the views were really not that spectacular.
Forest fire smoking in the distance
Our lunch camp
Our view to Diamond Lake
Flora
Mazama Campground offers a few sites for RVs "up to 50 feet". I
have never seen or heard of a 50' RV... but here we are in a large pull-through
site and the satellite gods are with us because for some strange reason we were
able to get TV and internet through a small break in the trees. This is what I
call roughing it! Don't want to be without television during the Olympics for
goodness sake!
Our lucky campsite (A-3, by the way)
We didn't linger long in our campsite, but hopped in the Honda
to drive the 33-mile Rim Drive - the road that travels completely around the rim
of the crater. The cloudy day did not make for spectacular photos and we did
have a bit of thunder, lightning, wind - a little sun - but many fabulous views.
Here are photos of our afternoon in
Crater Lake National Park.
Vidae Falls - spring fed waterfal
Butterfly
The Pinnacles: fossil fumaroles where volcanic gas rose up through hot ash
deposits,
cementing the ash into solid rock. (It is good to travel with a geologist.)
Wild currant berries were all over the Pinnacle trail
Happy Hikers: the only way to reach this boundary is on foot
Another view of the Pinnacles
Phantom Ship - 16 stories tall, this rock formation is
composed of 400,000 year old rock - the oldest rock
in the caldera.
Help! Is this a Clark's Nutcracker?
View of the rim - the red rock formation is called Pumice Castle
Wizard Island - the weather was getting nasty. We heard thunder in the distance.
Time to head back to camp!
Back at camp, I had a mac & cheese (prepared this morning) ready
to bake. I boiled the whole-wheat pasta and tossed it with Tillamook Sharp
Cheddar, a little olive oil, garlic and basil, oregano and rosemary from our
garden. I placed the concoction in a disposable pan and baked it in our gas oven
while DT grilled basil-chicken and mild Italian-chicken sausages. I also served
a tomato salad with basil from our garden.
Tomato, basil, olive oil, salt & pepper
My Chef relaxing with the New York Times crossword puzzle
Wonderful sausages from New Seasons Market
Squeezed-in to our campsite. Hope we can get out!
Camping food tastes better than regular food
On our drive and hikes today we saw six deer (including one
still-spotted fawn) and a fox!
Until my next update, I remain, your high-altitude correspondent.
Campsite: Mazama A-3 - Pull-through, no hook-ups. Fire pit,
picnic table. Dump station, showers, flush toilets, stores, restaurant.
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